The Learning Curve Can Be Steep but Manageable Given the Right Team to Oversee It!
Updated June 01, 2021

The Learning Curve Can Be Steep but Manageable Given the Right Team to Oversee It!

Brian Walker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

Blackbaud Education Management Solutions is being used for all aspects of our school, from Prekindergarten 3 to Grade 12 and in all departments across the organization from teachers to administrators to business office to development office and athletics. Blackbaud Education Management Solutions helps us more effectively communicate with our constituents, manage the educational records aspects of the school, and helps educators with organizing their classes.

Pros

  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions provides a centralized place for students and parents to find all the information they need for their day-to-day lives from assignments to schedules to athletics and more.
  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions allows for prospective families to progress logically through an admissions process and gives admissions managers the ability to track all aspects of the process.
  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions allows constituents to quickly update their own contact information, putting them into control of how they are communicated with.

Cons

  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions has a very antiquated method for sending out email communications/newsletters (called Pushpages). Many other systems provide a more robust system.
  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions has been working towards an all-in-one scheduling system, but the current system does not work for all school setups, especially those with complex structures.
  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions forward facing/public website solution works well but does not have the "flashiest" of feature sets that other solutions provide.
  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions allows our school to post news, photos, events, etc. in one centralized place and have the information cross post in a varies of areas both on the private and public sides of the website.
  • Blackbaud Education Management Solutions lets our administrative assistants spend less time looking through file cabinets for records and allow for access to files from any web-connected computer on- or off-campus.
  • Through reports and lists in Blackbaud Education Management Solutions users of all levels are able to print, export, and analyze various data to expedite their workflow.
For the most part, support is okay with Blackbaud Education Management Solutions. However, often times due to the wide range of features, it can be difficult to receive support immediately without the support representative having to consult with someone who specializes in the area with the issue. Previously, when Blackbaud Education Management Solutions was owned and managed solely by WhippleHill, Inc. and was much better and much more robust.
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions would be best for medium to large schools, mostly located in one centralized location. If you were going from a largely paper-based records/admissions management system, you would see great gains in efficiency with a product like this. Small schools would not see as much benefit to the services offered compared to the price point of the software.

Integrating Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

Nothing is ever easy with Blackbaud Education Management Software. But if you have the right contact with the support department you can usually get the results you are looking for.
  • Raiser's Edge
  • Raiser's Edge NXT
  • MagnusHealth
The integrations range for easy to setup to complex wen it requires data migration.
  • FinalSite
  • File import/export
  • Single Signon
Read up and ask for as much feedback from others using the product. DO internet searches for additional information and for specific issues other have come crossed.

Using Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

200 - Teacher, Non-Teaching Staff, Advisors, Coaches, Other Employees of the School. Ultimately the parents and students and prospective parents and students also use the system, however the backend functionality it is primary the 200+ teachers and other employees. Each uses the system in a different capacity.
5 - We have a webmaster that is also the Director of Marketing and Communications, the Lower, Middle, and Upper School Registrar, Admisisons Associate, Business Office Staff and a Director of Information Technology. They each play a different role with the webmaster taking on the largest areas of support.
  • Communications
  • Creating Groups
  • Academic Support
  • Academics/Grades
  • Class Organization
  • Mass Communications
  • Directory
  • External Website
  • Integrations with Other Products
  • Extending Group Uses
  • System Role Suport
It is a solid product. We have some issues with the capabilities of the website building components and the out dated technology behind its communications software but overall Blackbaud Education Management Software services to combine numerous functions into one product.

Blackbaud Education Management Solutions Support

ProsCons
Kept well informed
Slow Resolution
Poor followup
Less knowledgeable
Problems left unsolved
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
Slow Initial Response
NO. It was not offered.
Yes - If you report a bug you can expect it to take at minimum 90 days to get it resolved. Some bugs are still an issue years later.
When we have been a part of Early Adopter Programs they have been very responsive to our issues. Once products are released to the general public results can be mixed.

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